M-commerce in Europe 2015 : The latest buying trends on mobile

With one of the highest mobile penetration rates in the world, the potential for m-commerce in Europe is high. Twenga has studied website data from seven different countries to determine European consumer’s latest trends on mobile.

The importance of m-commerce in Europe

Mobile devices are becoming a huge part of our lives. Not only is their role significant for consumers, they are also expected to become increasingly important for online retailers this year.

Google’s most recent mobile-friendly algorithm (aka ‘Mobilegeddon’), has forced all websites including e-commerce sites to make their pages mobile friendly. If this has not been enough to convince us to turn to mobile, the fact that online spending on mobile devices doubled between 2014 and 2015 in Europe should do so.

Twenga has analysed traffic data on smartphones, tablets and desktops from over 4000 merchants and seven different European countries (The UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland and The Netherlands). This study allows us to better understand trends on a European level and discover where UK consumers stand in comparison to their overseas counterparts.

Mobile penetration rate: Europe sits in first place

With a penetration rate of 129%, Western Europe comes in second place globally, just behind Central and Eastern Europe. These figures confirm the potential of m-commerce and the necessity for marketers to adapt to this trend.

31.1% of UK e-commerce traffic is on mobile devices

Our study has shown that British consumers are the biggest shoppers on mobile. Germany and Spain rank in second and third place respectively, and surprisingly France ranks in sixth place, despite it being the third largest e-commerce market in Europe.

Smartphones are more popular than tablets

Generally smartphones are more popular devices than tablets for the European countries involved in our study. The Netherlands is the one and only exception, where 59% of mobile traffic is on tablets.

In the UK, 70% of e-commerce traffic comes from smartphones making them the device of choice for British consumers. Larger screens on the most recent smartphone models have facilitated this trend, making online shopping even easier on this type of device.

Europeans are shopping for their kids on mobile

On smartphones, the most popular product category in Europe is children’s products. In the UK, this product category is equally popular on smartphone, coming in third place behind leisure products and toys.

Furniture and homeware products are generally the most popular on tablets, while garden and DIY items are bought on desktop.

The nature of products tends to influence the type of device they are bought on: while desktops are preferred for technical purchases (tools, office supplies), smartphones and tablets are used for more visual products such as clothes, toys and jewellery.

Mobile traffic at its highest between 8pm and 9pm

In the final stage of the study, we looked at the time when consumers from these seven countries buy online. When looking at the data, we were able to see a peak in traffic between 8pm and 9pm. During this period, where tablets are used more than smartphones, we can only presume that consumers are spending their spare time on mobile devices.